The Pee Wee AA Kinsmen Bombers are ready to kick off 2019 with a tournament in Portage starting this Friday.

The Bombers will be in action against Winkler, Friday at 5. They play twice on Saturday against Portage at 9:30 and Selkirk at 2.

They will wrap up the round robin Sunday at 8 against Thompson.

Playoffs start Sunday at 9:30, with the championship final at 5.

Congratulations to Flin Flon's Carson Lee , who is now a Bronze medalist in wrestling from this past year's Cadet World Championships in Croatia.

Lee,  who originally finished fifth was upgraded to Bronze after it was revealed that the Gold medalist from Russia was disqualified for using a banned substance.

A ceremony for the presentation of the Bronze medal is being planned for 2019 in Saskatoon.

Carson and his brother Hunter are both looking forward to the new year, and hit the road Christmas day to continue their training at Brock University in St Catharines Ontario.

Flin Flon Minor Hockey is getting ready to host their first tournament of 2019,  as they will welcome Atom teams from across Manitoba for the Jason Morran Memorial, January the 4th to the 6th.

Teams will be competing from Flin Flon, The Pas, Thompson, Swan River, Snow Lake and Dauphin.

Games will take place at both the Sportex and Whitney Forum with action starting Friday at 1:30.

Playoffs start Sunday at 9:30.

Congratulations to Flin Flon's Justin Lies who has been one of 20 players selected under the age of 16 to make team Manitoba for the 2019 Canada Winter Games.

Justin, who was selected in the third round of the WHL bantam draft by the Vancouver Giants is currently playing with River Academy in Winnipeg and has 22 points in 25 games including 9 goals.

The winter games will take place in Red Deer, February 14th to the 23rd.

It wasn't the way the Flin Flon Bombers wanted to close out their Christmas break this past weekend.

The Bombers hit the road for three more games before Christmas and it started well with an 8-2 win over Laronge on Friday.

Captain Nate Hooper led the way with 5 points,  and Brandson Hein collected his third hat-trick of the year to give him 30 on the season.

Jacob Delorme got the start and was solid when he needed to be with 26 saves on 28 shots.

After more issues with the bus, the Bombers hit the road for Kindersley Saturday and the offense all but dried up with a pair of losses, 6-1 Saturday and 3-1 yesterday afternoon.

Kindersley is very good defensively and have the second best goals against in the league. The Klippers have only given up 74 goals in 34 games and only gave up 4 goals total in sweeping all 4 meetings with Flin Flon this year.

A lot of people think it is due to the goaltending, but I can tell you they run a very effective system in front of Justin Close and Zach Johnson.

Caleb Moretz was the only Bomber to beat Close Saturday and Midget call up Shayde Petersen got the only goal on Zach Johnson yesterday.

Pierce Diamond started on Saturday and was pulled after giving up 4 goals on 16 shots. Jacob Delorme came in half way through the second and stopped 9 of 11.

Delorme would get the start Sunday afternoon,  and I thought he  played well especially in the first period with a very lacklustre performance from his team.

The Klippers out shot the Bombers 15-8 in the first and were only able to score one goal.

Flin Flon would get it going in the second and third, but had a tough time getting pucks past Johnson, not to mention two cross bars and two posts.

Delorme ended up with 29 saves on 32 shots, and Johnson stopped 31out of 32. The Bombers couldn't get the power play going and went 0 for 5, while the Klippers were 1 for 5.

So, after the weekend, Flin Flon is 19-11-0-2 on the season and sit third in the Sherwood Division and are strating to fall behind the two front running teams in Melfort and Nipawin.

The Bombers are 8 points behind the Mustangs with a game in hand, and are 10 behind Nipawin with three games in hand.

What is most concerning to me is that Flin Flon only has 4 wins against teams that are over .500, and I expect them to improve on that after Christmas.

Flin Flon will enjoy a two week break before returning to the ice, December the 31st in Laronge. Game time has yet to be determined and 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com will have the broadcast.

The CO-OP Midget Bombers closed out December with two more wins in the Pas this weekend, taking down Norway House by scores of 7-2 and 3-1.

The Bombers are 4-1 in their last 5 and are now second place overall at 9-6-1, 7 points behind front running Thompson.

Flin Flon is done for the rest of 2018 and resume their schedule, January the 12th and 13th against Norway House at the Whitney Forum.

The Pee- Wee AA Bombers were in the Pas and they went 2-2 in the round robin. They lost to Dauphin 10-8 and Swan Valley 7-2. They beat Thompson 13-8 and The Pas 3-2.

Dauphin beat them in the B-side final 7-3. Swan Valley won the tournament beating The Pas 3-2.

The Bill McDonald Memorial basketball tournament took place this past weekend at several venues in the Pas.

Flin Flon and Creighton were well represented in both the boys and girls.

The Kopper Queens beat both Creighton and Neepawa to advance to the final, before losing  52-21 to powerful RD Parker out of Thompson.

Nipawin finished third knocking off Creighton 74-38.

Congratulations to Meadow Tyler and Electra Calhoun on being named to the all star team.

In the boys, Hapnot lost to the Pas and beat Kamsack. That put them in the B-final against RD Parker and they played very well dropping a close one 76-71.

MBCI won the A-side, 73-39 over Cranberry.  Creighton lost both their games to Cranberry and The Pas.

The Flin Flon Bombers have three more games to play before the players will all go their separate ways for the Christmas break.

The Bombers hit the road starting tonight in Laronge against the Ice Wolves. Once again, this will be a different looking Ice Wolf club who moved two of their best offensive players before Dec 1st, including Kolby Johnson and Mitch Zambon.

Johnson was dealt to Dauphin of the MJHL and Zambon is now in Humboldt. The trades seemed to make a difference as Laronge snapped a 14 game losing streak last weekend against Battleford, taking 3 out of a possible 4 points.

The Wolves do remain dead last in the league at : 7-25-1 and have lost all 4 games against Flin Flon so far this season.

The Bombers remain third in the Sherwood Division at 18-9-0-2 and haven't been able to make any ground on the top two teams in the division, Melfort and Nipawin. Flin Flon trails second place Melfort by 6 points and first place Nipawin by 9 points.

The Maroon and White do have games in hand including 2 on Melfort and 5 on Nipawin.

If the Bombers are going to be able to catch the two top teams in the division they are going to start winning more games at home. Flin Flon is 11-6-0-1 at the Whitney Forum so far this year and are very happy with their road record at 7-3-1.

In the 4 head to head match-ups with Laronge,  the games have been a lot tighter at the Forum with the Bombers winning 4-2 and  8-5, with the two games at the Mel Hegland, 9-2 and 8-5 in favour of Flin Flon.

Bomber captain Nate Hooper has been their best offensive player the past few weeks picking up 9 points in the last 6 games. Brandson Hein did break through with a couple of goals against the Bronco's on Friday to give him 27 on the season.

That is good enough for second overall, behind the Mustangs Justin Ball who has 31. Tyler Higgins has been very solid since coming over from the QMJHL, picking up 2 goals in 3 games played.

After tonight Flin Flon will be in Kindersley for a pair of games tomorrow at 7:30 and a special 2 PM start on Sunday. All 3 games will be broadcast on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.

Don't forget we hit the air tonight from Laronge  with the Great North GM Coach's Show at 7:10  and drop of the puck at 7:30.

The Pas is getting ready to host the 6th annual Bill McDonald Memorial basketball tournament this weekend with lots of teams competing from all over Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

In the Girls bracket MBCI from the Pas will battle Cranberry 1:30 on Friday at Scott Batemen.

Hapnot takes on Neepawa at 3:30 at MBCI. The Championship final is set to go Saturday at 3 at UCN.

In the Boy's, MBCI plays Hapnot at 1:30 at MBCI. Creighton takes on Cranberry at the Wellness Centre at 1:30.

The Championship Final is on Saturday at the Wellness Centre at 5.

The Kinsmen Pee Wee AA Bombers are off to a tournament in Swan River this weekend along with teams from Dauphin, Thompson, The Pas and host Stampeders.

Flin Flon will play The Pas at 2:15 and Swan Valley at 5:45 on Friday. Saturday they play Dauphin at 9:30 and Thompson at 2:45.

The Bronze medal game is at 10 am on Sunday followed by the Gold medal game at noon.

The CO-OP Midget AA Bombers swept a pair of games against the Cross Lake Islanders at the Whitney Forum this past weekend.

Flin Flon took both games by scores of 8-4 on Saturday and 8-3 yesterday.

Goal scorers from Saturday were: Ron Campbell(2), Nathan Stevens (2), Cree Nicholas, Sean Yaworski, Thunder Ballantyne and Chayce Busby.

Yesterday the goals were scored by : Blake Alexander (3), Aidan Collard. Evan Madarash,Chayce Busby,Cree Nicholas and Damon Constant.

The Bombers are hitting their stride and have climbed over .500 at 7-6-0-1 and are third overall with 15 points.

Flin Flon travel to the Pas next weekend to battle Norway House in their final two games before Christmas.

The high school basketball season kicked off this past Friday with the annual  Boy's Border Bash Tournament in Creighton.

MBCI out of the Pas finished first beating Cranberry 60 to 46 to win the tournament.

The Hapnot Kings went 1-1 in the round robin and beat Nipawin in a nail biter 49-48 to take the B-side.

The host Kodiaks were 1-1 in the round robin and ended up losing 79-62 to Sandy Bay in the third place game.

The Humboldt Broncos scored with just over 1 minute remaining in regulation last night and were able to pull out a 2-1 win over the Flin Flon Bombers at the Whitney Forum.

Drew Warkentine was able to lead a two on one down the ice and fired a nice low wrist shot past Pierce Diamond for hIs 8th goal in 8 games since coming over from the AJHL.

The Bombers got Diamond out for the extra attacker but couldn't get the equalizer despite swarming the Humboldt net in the dieing seconds.

Flin Flon got their lone goal from Dawson McKenzie when he placed a shot just underneath the cross bar to open the game 2:15 early in the first period.

The Bronco's countered on a short handed goal from Brayden Camrud when he collected a loose puck behind the Bomber net and scored on a wrap around. That would be all the offense til late in the third period.

I thought the Bombers carried the play in the first period and had some chances to put the Bronco's away but couldn't capitalize on their chances and let Humboldt stay in it.

Back up goalie Rayce Ramsay was solid in making 34 saves on 35 shots while Pierce Diamond suffered just his fourth loss giving up 2 goals on 30 shots.

With the win,  Humboldt will leap frog Kindersley for first place in the Global Ag Risk Solution Division with 45 points , which is also good enough for a share of first overall with Nipawin.

Flin Flon remains in third in the Sherwood Division at 18-9-0-2 and sit 5 points behind Melfort and 7 behind Nipawin. The Bombers do have a game in hand on the Mustangs and two on the Hawks.

The Bombers are 6-4 in their last ten and will play three more games before their Christmas break with a trip to Laronge Friday and Kindersley, Saturday and Sunday. All three games will be broadcast on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.

The CO-OP Midget AA Bombers are back in town this weekend as they will host the first place Cross Lake Islanders.

Games are this Saturday at 4 and Sunday at 11 at the Whitney Forum.

Cross Lake is tied with Thompson for first overall at 9-3 while Flin Flon is third at 5-6-0-1. These will be the final two home games before Christmas.

The Bombers will travel to the Pas to battle Norway House next weekend.

Flin Flon Minor Hockey will be hosting a mid-season goaltending clinic December the 28th and 29th at the Creighton Sportex.

It is open to any kids 8-13 and it will start at 8:45 both days. There will be two ice sessions both days and will be a geat refersher course for the stretch run after Christmas.

You can register on the Flin Flon Minor Hockry web-site and you can call 204-489- 7465 for more information.

The High School Basketball season will begin this weekend with the Creighton Kodiaks hosting the Boys Senior Border Bash Tournament.

Teams will be competing from Creighton, Hapnot, Laronge, Cranberry,Nipawin, Sandy Bay, The Pas and La Loche.

Action starts Friday at 2:30 with Creighton playing Laronge. Hapnot's first game is Friday at 4 VS Sandy Bay.

Playoffs start Saturday at 10:30, with the A-side final at 7:30.

The Midget AA CO-OP Bombers were in Thompson for a pair of games this weekend in  the Norman Midget AA League.

Thompson took both games by scores of 5-2 and 2-1.

Austin McLean, Damon Constant and Aidan Collard scored the goals.

The Bombers record will fall to 5-6-0-1 and they return to the Whitney Forum to host Cross Lake this weekend.

The Norman Northstars were also in action and dropped three games on the road. They squared off with Pembina Valley losing 7-2 on Friday and 6-5 in Ot on Saturday.

The Northstars scored with just 23 seconds left in the third period to force OT and would gain a point. Flin Flon's Blake Lahonen scored one of the goals.

Sunday Norman fell to the Winnipeg Bruins 8-4 to fall to 2-22-0-1 on the season.

Norman will host Eastman this weekend.

The fIrst Flin Flon Minor Hockey Tournament  of the year wrapped up yesterday at the Whitney Forum and Sportex. 11 teams took part and FFMH did an excellent job organizing and the kids had lots of fun playing the game for all the right reasons.

Here are the complete results:

A- Final ( Mel Pearson Event) Norway House 14- The Pas Grey 4

B-Final ( Jack Turner Event) Thompson Kings 11- Snow Lake 8

C-Final ( Scott Davidson Event) Thompson Flyers 8- The Pas Red 7

D- Final ( Paddy Ginnell Event) The Pas Black 12- Laronge 4

E- Final ( Cementation Event) McKeens 12- Firemen 4

F- Final ( Shayne Pearson Event) Thompson Wild 15- FF Steelworkers 9

The High school volleyball season has come to an end for another year. The Hapnot Senior Queens were the last team still in action at Provincials in MacGregor.

It was a gutzy effort from the Queens who had a good weekend beating MacGregor 2 sets to 0 and Springs Christian 2 sets to 1.

They lost to Green Valley 2 sets to 1 and Gabrielle Roy 2 sets to 0 to finish second in their pool.

In the playoff round they got beat by one of the best teams in the province Major Pratt out of Russell, 2 sets to 0 by scores of 18-25 and 11-25.

Warren ended up winning the Provincial title.

One goal was all it took for the Flin Flon Bombers to pick up their 17th win of the season as they blanked the Estevan Bruins 1-0 Friday night at the Whitney Forum.

Tyler Higgins who was just picked up from the QMJHL made his presence felt in his Bomber debut, snapping a shot from the point low blocker side on Grant Boldt for the only goal of the night.

Higgins,  who is a very impressive physical specimen at 6 ft 5 should be fun to watch in a Bomber uniform for the rest of the season. I interviewed Higgins in the first intermission and he told me he is thrilled to be in Flin Flon and appreciates the team's rich history.

The two best players on the ice were the two goaltenders who put on a show for their respective clubs.

Grant Boldt made a lot of highlight reel saves for the Bruins and ended up making 30 saves on 31 shots. Not to be out done, Pierce Diamond was rock solid in making 24 saves for his second career SJHL shut out.

This was an important win for Flin Flon who improve to 17-8-0-2 and are within 5 points of second place Melfort with 2 games in hand. The Mustangs have dropped two in a row to Yorkton and Estevan.

Nipawin has climbed into first place with 43 points and the Bombers will travel to the Cage Tuesday night looking for their first win of the year against the Hawks.

The Bombers are 7 points behind with 3 games in hand.

Estevan surprised Melfort 4-3 on Saturday and end up going 2-1 on their Northern road trip. They are 15-17-1 and are 2 points behind Yorkton for first in the Viterra Division.

It was a very special night for the entire Bomber organization as long time fan and supporter Jonathan Dougall was honored before the game.

Jonhy was presented with an autographed Bobby Clarke Bomber jersey and a plaque from the RCMP for his contributions in the community.

Jonhy also got to be a guest coach on the Bomber bench and dropped the puck before a standing ovation.

It was first class all the way on behalf of the Flin Flon Bomber organization.

Besides acquiring Higgins from the QMJHL, Flin Flon did make another move in dealing 20 year old d-man Doug Johnson to Steinbach of the MJHL.

The Bombers were maxed at 20 year old's which made Johnson available. Mike Reagan commented that it was difficult to see Doug go who was very committed to being a Bomber.

This is a big week for the Maroon and White, who head to the Cage tomorrow to face the first place team in the Sherwood Division, the Nipawin Hawks. Nipawin has taken all 3 meetings this year.

We will have the broadcast on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com including the Great North GM Coach's Show at 7:10 and drop of the puck at 7:30. It doesn't get any easier with the second place overall Humboldt Broncos coming to town for a pair of games this weekend, Friday and Saturday.